Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I should probably at least pretend to review things sometimes, shouldn't I? Just to join in with the general squee.
Thus, at the weekend I went to see Deathly Hallows part 1 and I don't think it's spoilerish to say that I really loved it. If you didn't, feel free to continue to not love it but please don't try to insist so hard on its crapness that I get the feeling you're trying to force me to hold your opinion
Why no, I am not getting frustrated with the attitude of some fans who are determined that anything they didn't enjoy must be automatically hated by every fan. Argh.
I am happy in my squee-ing and joy. Don't take my joy away!
Leaving all that aside, there were some stand-out parts and I even have reasons for why I loved it:
- I loved it because I loved Deathly Hallows (don't hit me!) and this is probably the most faithful of any of the movie adaptations.
- Yup, there were some bits that were cut but none of the important bits. Some nice bits (like Dudley saying goodbye to Harry) were left out that I would have liked to have seen, but the movie would have been six hours long if they'd kept all those bits in. The cuts they made were ones that made sense to the overall story.
- The movie expected everyone to be familiar with the previous movies and possibly the books. This is not the movie to jump in with. That made me happy because re-capping six movies every five minutes would have driven me insane.
- That may be my only tiny negative: this is a movie made for fans, not for the really casual viewer. It's one of its strengths but also one of its weaknesses. That said, I'd rather have it done this way because at least we were able to jump right into the action and that meant they could fit in more plot.
- Hermione Obliviating her parents and leaving was beautifully done. I'm so glad that was shown rather than being told.
- Hermione is actually really, really awesome and I adore her.
- The fall of the Ministry and the panic at the wedding is one of my favourite book moments. So glad that was kept in.
- Why couldn't we have had Scrimgeour in Half-Blood Prince? I adore Bill Nighy!
- The new evil Minister is played by a guy who just started on Holby City. It is slightly unfortunate that his Holby character bears a great resemblance to the new Minister and there are even some moments in his Holby scenes that could have been taken directly from the movie. This is going to make Holby tough to watch, particularly if the Holby character turns out to be good :-)
- They kept in the despairing, desperate, painful camping around the UK with all the appropriate sense of utter hopelessness, but they trimmed it enough that the movie didn't feel like one long, endless camping movie. Phew.
- Likewise, Grimmauld Place happened but did not consume quite so much endless depression time as it did in the book. Phew.
- I got something in my eye when Hedwig was killed.
- That damn bit of dust got in my eye when Dobby died, too.
- This was totally not a movie for kids. The torture of Hermione...ow. That was hard to watch. I'm glad they kept it in because (for me) it's a really important element. It was still painful, though.
- They shortened the sequence at the Lovegood house, but it was still great. The guy playing Luna's father was just perfect.
- I adore Luna.
- The Tale of the Three Brothers was genius. There's a fair bit of this book that is told through letters, books and fairy tales and I had no idea how they would make that work. The CGI animation thing for the Three Brothers was brilliant and I loved it.
- I get the feeling that the film may be focusing on the Elder Wand part of the tale, though, and may not mention Harry's cloak or the resurrection stone. I really hope that I'm wrong because that's a bit that I quite loved.
- Neville only got one scene but he got to be awesome. I am so excited for part 2's Neville-ness.
- They kept in the silver doe! Yay! This means that we'll hopefully get Snape's story!
- Loved all of Ron's stuff. The emotional journey was pitched well and the scene where he deserts Harry and Hermione was as painful as it should be.
- That opening sequence with Voldemort was just right. I was particularly pleased with Alan Rickman's Snape, because he's so ambiguous that you can believe he's evil but if you know the books then his expressions take on a different meaning. He's brilliant.
- Also, Lucius Malfoy is a complete wreck and I thought his actor performed that beautifully.
- Someone tell me that the actor who played Bill is an older brother of the boys playing the Weasley twins. Their resemblance was spooky.
- So happy that they kept in George losing his ear and Fred's disgust with the bad ear-related humour.
- One of the reasons that I enjoy seeing something like this on opening weekend is because the theatre is filled with fans and everyone is really into it, so there are reactions. Everyone gasped at the sight of Harry's wand being broken, even though most of us must have been expecting it. Likewise, there were audible titters and sighs of relief when the scene by the river opened after the escape from Godric's Hollow. And yes, some awkward laughter at the Harry/Hermione kiss in the destruction of the Horcrux scene because by that stage, it was like watching a brother and sister kiss but we could all see that it was tearing Ron apart. Hearing all those reactions was lovely because we were all right *there* in the film together.
- Does July have to be so far away?
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/381485.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth
Thus, at the weekend I went to see Deathly Hallows part 1 and I don't think it's spoilerish to say that I really loved it. If you didn't, feel free to continue to not love it but please don't try to insist so hard on its crapness that I get the feeling you're trying to force me to hold your opinion
Why no, I am not getting frustrated with the attitude of some fans who are determined that anything they didn't enjoy must be automatically hated by every fan. Argh.
I am happy in my squee-ing and joy. Don't take my joy away!
Leaving all that aside, there were some stand-out parts and I even have reasons for why I loved it:
- I loved it because I loved Deathly Hallows (don't hit me!) and this is probably the most faithful of any of the movie adaptations.
- Yup, there were some bits that were cut but none of the important bits. Some nice bits (like Dudley saying goodbye to Harry) were left out that I would have liked to have seen, but the movie would have been six hours long if they'd kept all those bits in. The cuts they made were ones that made sense to the overall story.
- The movie expected everyone to be familiar with the previous movies and possibly the books. This is not the movie to jump in with. That made me happy because re-capping six movies every five minutes would have driven me insane.
- That may be my only tiny negative: this is a movie made for fans, not for the really casual viewer. It's one of its strengths but also one of its weaknesses. That said, I'd rather have it done this way because at least we were able to jump right into the action and that meant they could fit in more plot.
- Hermione Obliviating her parents and leaving was beautifully done. I'm so glad that was shown rather than being told.
- Hermione is actually really, really awesome and I adore her.
- The fall of the Ministry and the panic at the wedding is one of my favourite book moments. So glad that was kept in.
- Why couldn't we have had Scrimgeour in Half-Blood Prince? I adore Bill Nighy!
- The new evil Minister is played by a guy who just started on Holby City. It is slightly unfortunate that his Holby character bears a great resemblance to the new Minister and there are even some moments in his Holby scenes that could have been taken directly from the movie. This is going to make Holby tough to watch, particularly if the Holby character turns out to be good :-)
- They kept in the despairing, desperate, painful camping around the UK with all the appropriate sense of utter hopelessness, but they trimmed it enough that the movie didn't feel like one long, endless camping movie. Phew.
- Likewise, Grimmauld Place happened but did not consume quite so much endless depression time as it did in the book. Phew.
- I got something in my eye when Hedwig was killed.
- That damn bit of dust got in my eye when Dobby died, too.
- This was totally not a movie for kids. The torture of Hermione...ow. That was hard to watch. I'm glad they kept it in because (for me) it's a really important element. It was still painful, though.
- They shortened the sequence at the Lovegood house, but it was still great. The guy playing Luna's father was just perfect.
- I adore Luna.
- The Tale of the Three Brothers was genius. There's a fair bit of this book that is told through letters, books and fairy tales and I had no idea how they would make that work. The CGI animation thing for the Three Brothers was brilliant and I loved it.
- I get the feeling that the film may be focusing on the Elder Wand part of the tale, though, and may not mention Harry's cloak or the resurrection stone. I really hope that I'm wrong because that's a bit that I quite loved.
- Neville only got one scene but he got to be awesome. I am so excited for part 2's Neville-ness.
- They kept in the silver doe! Yay! This means that we'll hopefully get Snape's story!
- Loved all of Ron's stuff. The emotional journey was pitched well and the scene where he deserts Harry and Hermione was as painful as it should be.
- That opening sequence with Voldemort was just right. I was particularly pleased with Alan Rickman's Snape, because he's so ambiguous that you can believe he's evil but if you know the books then his expressions take on a different meaning. He's brilliant.
- Also, Lucius Malfoy is a complete wreck and I thought his actor performed that beautifully.
- Someone tell me that the actor who played Bill is an older brother of the boys playing the Weasley twins. Their resemblance was spooky.
- So happy that they kept in George losing his ear and Fred's disgust with the bad ear-related humour.
- One of the reasons that I enjoy seeing something like this on opening weekend is because the theatre is filled with fans and everyone is really into it, so there are reactions. Everyone gasped at the sight of Harry's wand being broken, even though most of us must have been expecting it. Likewise, there were audible titters and sighs of relief when the scene by the river opened after the escape from Godric's Hollow. And yes, some awkward laughter at the Harry/Hermione kiss in the destruction of the Horcrux scene because by that stage, it was like watching a brother and sister kiss but we could all see that it was tearing Ron apart. Hearing all those reactions was lovely because we were all right *there* in the film together.
- Does July have to be so far away?
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/381485.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth